Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi hospitalised in Iran

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi has been hospitalised in Iran, her supporters said, "following a catastrophic deterioration of her health".

Mohammadi, who won the peace prize in 2023 in recognition of more than two decades of rights campaigning, was arrested in December in the eastern city of Mashhad after speaking out against Iran's clerical authorities at a funeral ceremony.

Her supporters had been warning for months about her health, saying in late March that she had suffered a suspected heart attack but received inadequate medical treatment.

In a statement posted by her foundation on Friday, they said she was "urgently transferred to a hospital in Zanjan today" after a rapid deterioration, "including two episodes of complete loss of consciousness and a severe cardiac crisis".

A picture of Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi on the wall of the Grand Hotel in central Oslo before the Nobel banquet, in connection with the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize 2023, in Oslo, Norway, on December 10, 2023. File/Reuters

The statement said her family described the move as a "last-minute action" that could prove too late.

In a post on X, her lawyer Mostafa Nili said Mohammadi initially refused to be transferred to hospital after fainting the first time from a sudden drop in blood pressure, because of previous warnings from medics that Zanjan hospital was not capable of treating her.

But, following a second collapse and a further deterioration, she was moved to the facility.

"According to the neurologist, despite her serious cardiac issues, addressing her neurological state is currently the clinical priority," Nili said.

Over the past quarter of a century, Mohammadi, 53, has been repeatedly tried and jailed for her campaigning against Iran's use of capital punishment and its mandatory dress code for women.

Agence France-Presse